Theres a lot of Outside outside


 Day 2 and 8 covid tests were negative, which meant I was able to start orienting at work on the 18th.

And explore the cemetery across the road that I have been watching squirrels in.

And head into town and see the cathedral that I remember having lunch by 9 years ago.

Its an easy town to walk round in - people are kind.

Once out, its easier to see how most people have been reigning themselves in. 

How hard its been.

How far there is to go - even if the risk of Covid transmission went away overnight (which it really isn't... there looms ever onwards a fear of a 3rd wave), I think there's going to have to be a gentle unfolding. A tentative reach to the edge of the steps to see if the ground is still there. 

Anyway, onwards.












Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome to Cornwall

Image
 My very kind housemate took me to Tintagel today - where we were able to meet her parents and go for a walk.  I was post night shifts so half in a fug and not going anywhere in a hurry - but the track seemed made for that pace, ambling up and over ridges and gullies with the ocean horizon stretching wide from the GCHQ spy satellite outcrop in the north (Near Bude), past a wee island with puffins on (Lundy), and out to the vastness west from there.  (It was strange knowing that Ireland is somewhere "out there" *Waves arm*).  It was about an hours drive west from Exeter, a real treat to get out and explore without much brain power required on my part (but lots of careful planning from the master picnickers, Rebecca and her folks). Tintagel is a lovely wee tourist town that is pretty empty at the moment, awaiting the formal lifting of lockdown that will allow people to wander inside the sweet and craft shops, to buy crystals or pay for a photo of your aura (!). Tintage...
Read more

Recurrent snot crying for no obvious reason.

Image
I think its been a week now of good and proper homesickness - a feeling I had forgotten about and how illogical yet overwhelming can be. I have vague rattling memories of being at Uni in a hall of residence and realising only after the Easter break, that everyone else on my floor had felt much the same as I did, but we all were trying far too hard to be cool and grown up to admit it. I remember also, feeling homesick half way through some really big adventures back in 2012, when I went to Bangladesh for a 3 months, with a trip to Albania afterwards before carrying on to many other locations. The forward propulsion helped then, but also the randomness and wonderfulness of finding myself in a backpackers in the middle of nowhere (Berat, actually) and finding myself with 8 other kiwis. One of them was named Duran (after the band Duran Duran) and was from Hamilton. I often wonder where he is these days. He was doing travelling right - had been in Albania for a while, and paid for hostel st...
Read more

Other White Background

Image
  On the phone, I had to register for my home Covid test, and clarify my ethnicity. Pakeha is not on any drop down menu here. My old flatmate, a Croatian migrant to NZ used to laugh at the misnomer that "NZ European" is. (NZ Spanish? NZ Balkan? NZ French??). So I am apparently, "White, other background" Which sounds like paint.  Off-white, potentially.  A blank wall. By co-incidence, in my pacing of the backyard, I got listening back to back podcasts that addressed exactly this. "O ne of the privileges of being white is: a) not having to think about it. So when people say ‘well, because, you know, I don't know what you mean, I never thought about being white’. Yeah actually, I understand that ‘cause that's one of the gifts of being white." - Prof Antony Reddy (Author of "Is God Colourblind?") So definitely not a blank wall. He goes on -  " But then secondly - and I think this is the more constructive and progressive element of it - i...
Read more